HAMMOND | There were plenty of questions but also overwhelming support for a proposed charter school in Hammond.
The Hammond Academy for Science and Technology, first proposed by Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. in 2006, got a public airing Wednesday night to a standing room-only crowd at Purdue University Calumet's Calumet Conference Center.
It won't be your typical school, organizers said. It's going to be heavily focused on project-based education in which students will learn according to national and state-required standards, experience working with a team and apply that to everyday life.
Organizers say the new school will be in session an hour longer every day of the week except Friday, when school will let out about noon, giving teachers an opportunity for staff development.
Questions about the new school ranged from how the school will choose its students to whether there will be transportation provided to students, as well as before- and after-school activities.
Hammond resident Patrick Mysliwy questioned the building's physical requirements and the timetable for plans to finish construction in a year.
Resident Stan Dostatni asked how the academy would attract its teaching staff.
Cindy Murphy, who is a Hammond School Board member, said she didn't hear anything in the curriculum about foreign language, and she commented on the "more stringent" requirements that students are expected to meet to earn a Core 40 diploma, Core 40 with Academic Honors or Core 40 with Technical Honors.
The public hearing was hosted by Larry Gabbert, director of the Office of Charter Schools at Ball State University, which has chartered 29 schools in the state. He said he will present all of the comments to Ball State President Jo Ann Gora who is expected to make a decision June 9.
If approved, the school will open in August 2010 with 320 students in grades six through nine, growing each year until it reaches a student body of 550 students through 12th grade.
The academy board has partnered with Purdue Calumet in Hammond to develop the curriculum and instruction. Purdue also will be required to train students.
The charter school would be operated by the seven-member Hammond Urban Academy Board, whose current members are Kris Sakelaris, Sheldon Cutler, Tom Dabertin, Dan Repay, Owana Miller, David Ryan and Marty Wielgos.
The school will have an open-enrollment policy, but students will be chosen by lottery, Dabertin said.
McDermott, who got to the meeting shortly before it ended, said he wants to improve education in Hammond and "this is in no way an indictment of the School City of Hammond."
Audrey Polite, of Munster, who was at the meeting with her husband, said the academy sounds like an exciting opportunity.
Polite, who has two children in private school, said "the academy not only represents an opportunity for Hammond but for all of Northwest Indiana."
